NLGJA sponsor makes headlines
Herald sacks reporters for conflict of interest

By Andrew Bowen and Kris Turner
NLGJA Reporter Staff Writer

A Freedom of Information Act request filed by a reporter from the Miami Herald yielded the information that led to the dismissal of three reporters from el Nuevo Herald, its Spanish-language sister paper.

The request was part of an ongoing investigation into funding for TV Martí and Radio Martí, which are operated by the U.S. government and broadcast to Cuban viewers. The stations aim to provide their listeners with an American perspective on news.

“For a long time, we had been looking to follow and examine the federal funding of TV and Radio Martí,” said Manny Garcia, an assistant managing editor at the Miami Herald. “After we had filed a federal Freedom of Information request, when we got the records, our reporter Oscar Corral came across the contracts. At that point, we had an obligation to bring it to light.”

Garcia would not elaborate on the situation, saying the story that ran in Friday’s Miami Herald speaks for itself.

El Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald are sponsors of the NLGJA Student Project and convention. On Thursday, Garcia served as a mentor for the NLGJA Reporter.
The executive editor of el Nuevo Herald, Humberto Castelló, could not be reached for comment.

The Miami Herald reported that at least 10 journalists, five of them with ties to The McClatchy Company, which owns both papers, received thousands of dollars for contributing to programs on TV Martí and Radio Martí.

“I’m surprised there were that many journalists taking the money,” said Kelly McBride, the ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists based in St. Petersburg. “I really want to hear from them, and if there was something about this that didn’t appeal to the sense of the reporters. It went against almost every newsroom policy about freelancing.”

Jeffrey Kofman, an ABC News correspondent and a member of Friday’s “How Does Gay Translate?” panel discussion, said that although what the journalists did was inexcusable, it shows their dedication to change the Cuban administration.

“The passion of Cuban Americans for this issue is so powerful,” he said. “Some clearly crossed a line they shouldn’t have crossed. It’s hard to see any justification for it.”
Some of the journalists defended their actions in Friday’s Miami Herald and said they believe in an overhaul of the Cuban government.

It’s always necessary to bring attention to ethical issues that spring up in journalism so they can be resolved quickly and accurately, Kofman said.

“It’s also interesting that the Miami Herald gave so much play to its sister paper,” he said. “I was impressed they didn’t bury it inside.”

Commenting on Radio Martí and TV Martí doesn’t make any impact because the network is banned in Cuba, Kofman said. The networks essentially don’t have an audience, he added.

The political leanings of the reporters could have impacted their decisions to take the money, McBride said.

“I’m going to bet it was easy for them to rationalize the money dispersed from the federal government,” she said. “It’s easy to say it doesn’t create a conflict of interest because everybody wants Cuba to be a democracy.”

The damage done to El Nuevo Herald and its parent company is still unclear, McBride said. This is yet another instance of journalists making poor choices that can have a large impact on the credibility of journalism as a whole, she added.

This is not the first instance of reporters being offered and taking money from the government, McBride said.

“The administration has a track record of trying to spend money to compensate journalists,” she said. “The definition of a journalist is clear. It would behoove professional journalists to learn to separate themselves (from their political beliefs).”